“I'm a mother," said her mother, in her foodless flat where the dust did not dare to settle, "and I know what I know.”

“You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly.'You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline.”

“How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline."I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave.""Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline."Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”

“Why did I not know that birth is the pinnacle where women discover the courage to become mothers?”

“You're lucky your mother died,' she said.I didn't like that. 'I'm lucky my mother died?'Between sobs she said, 'Your mother would have stayed if she could. My mother chose to leave me. She's still out there somewhere. I wish she had died instead.'I sat down next to her and put my arm around her. 'I'll never leave you.'She laid her head on my shoulder. 'I know.”

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, what the hell did thatmean anyway? Was it supposed to be a consoling thought,understanding her mother was now nothing more than decaying fleshand bones?”